The Share Of Female CEOs At The World's Biggest Companies Is Hugely Overestimated [Infographic]

Tomorrow marks International Women's Day, a global commemoration of the struggle for women's rights that's observed annually. This time around, the day is set to prove even more poignant after a year that saw countless rallies and surging support for the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements. This year, organizers are aiming to harness all of the progress of the past 12 months and the 2018 theme is a push for global gender parity dubbed #PressforProgress.

Ahead of International Women's Day, Ipsos MORI released a study across 27 countries which highlighted the level of concern people have regarding equality. While the research found that sexual harassment is seen as the biggest issue facing women in most countries, it also uncovered serious misperceptions on a wide range of other issues. When it comes to women's representation in business, nearly all of the countries polled significantly overestimated the share of female CEOs at the world's 500 biggest companies.

As can be seen by the following infographic showing a selection of 15 countries polled, respondents in Mexico, Brazil, India, Turkey and Russia all guessed that the share of female CEOs in the biggest companies is above 20 percent. In actual fact, it's just 3 percent. American respondents also overestimated, guessing 18 percent, while South Koreans were a bit closer to reality with 9 percent.